Evening Star Newspaper, October 25, 1936, Page 57

THE SUNDAY STAR. WASHINGTON, D. C., OCTOBER _ 25, 1936—PART FOUR. 'F—3 "EVOLUTIONARY CHANGE OF WAVE ALLOCATIONS URGED Drastic Revision Opposed InF.C.C.3-Week Hearings N.B. C. and C. B. S. on Opposite Sides of Superpower Issue—Decision Up to 3 on Commission. By the Radio Editor. ADIO broadcasting, glamorous and high-stepping ingenué of the enter- tainment world, may undergo its first facé-lifting operation in eight years at the hands of its regulatory manager—the Federal Com- munications Commission. After nearly three weeks of hearings, at which the status of the tech- nical art of radio was appraised, the Broadcast Division of the F. C. C. has before it the problem of deciding$p—————"""-"--"-———" whether it should alter the present structure of some.6850 broadcasting stations as a means of improving serv- ice for the listerter. The weight of the testimony of about three dozen witnesses, hawewr, is generally against any drastic ovethauling of the exist- | ing assignmeras, but almost 100 per cent in favcs of gradual or “evolu- tionary” changes. That, however, is as far as the com- batant groups agreed, for from that point on they favor different methods | of accomplishing the ‘“evolutionary” | result. All groups of stations—the booming 50,000-watters that want 10 times that power, the middle-class re- gionals, which also want additional power, but oppose it for the bigger outlets, and the little 100-watters, which have a natural desire to grow up—argued their particular cases. Even the networks—N. B. C. and C. B. S.—were on opposite fences on the basic issue of superpower, the first favoring it and the latter opposing it. NOW before the three men of the Broadcast Division is a record- of evidence which in physical size and actual scope is greater than any it has ever seen in its official pursuits, and upon that record may rest the future fate of broadcasting not only in a technical way, but economically and socially. These men are Chair- man E. O. Sykes, who was a member of the original Radio Commission and has served continuously since 1927 on that commission and on the F. C. C.; Chairman Anning S. Prall of the F. C. C. and Commissioner Norman 8. Case, former Governor of Rhode Is- land. Only Judge Sykes of the three members has been through the allo- cation mill before; he was one of the five-man commission that pro- mulgated the 1928 reallocation, which is the basis of the broadcast struc- ture today. ‘When the hearings opened Octo- ber 5 there was talk of reallocations that would shuffie the existing assign- ments so that listeners would pick up stations at new spots on the dial. ‘There was also conversation about 30 stations the size of WLW, with its half million watts, of duplication on many of the clear channels, and of other far-reaching steps that would turn things topsy-turvy. When the hearings closed October 21, it appeared to impartial observers that the issue had simmered down largely to one salient point—whether there should be superpower. There was general agreement that regional stations, now limited to 1,000 watts at night, will be permitted eventually to go to 5,000 watts at night where the channels are adapted for it. Like- wise, there was no objection to in- creasing local stations from 100 to perhaps 250 watts at night. THE bombardment against clear = channels and in support of dupli- cation on all of them largely petered out. True, a half dozen groups sup- ported duplication on some of these channels, but they rather generally conceded that exclusive channels are desirable for good distant reception for rural listeners. Thus observers feel that of the 30 remaining clear channels out of the 40 set aside in 1928, perhaps five or six eventually may be duplicated by placing more stations on them, but that it is un- likely the others will be touched. By virtue of the expected increases in power on locals and regionals, listeners of those stations can antici- pate better signal strength and clearer reception from them. They may ex- pand their listening ranges somewhat, but not materially, since it is a recog- nized engineering fact that when stations increase power “horizontally,” that is, when all stations on a given wave length go up together, they simply emit stronger signals and do not appreciably enlarge their coverage. Today it appears that the big issue is whether the F. C. C. will allow superpower on any additional chan- nels. It would appear that if the testimony for and against were ‘weighed, it would balance the scales. But there are broader issues. Smaller stations claimed “economic ruin” if clear channels use superpower. Even C. B. 8. opposed it on economic grounds and threw in the threat that it would be forced to prune numerous smaller stations from its network due to expected overlapping coverage by the proposed giants of the air. FR.OM the questions asked by com- missioners and by engineering officials of the F. C. C, there was the hint that any general allotment of superpower would be opposed. More than likely the F. C. C. will consider higher power in individual cases rather than on a blanket basis. And since WLW already has it and has admittedly performed a good Job, the logical conclusion would be that stations similarly located in the interior of the country—like WHAS in , or WSM in Nashville, or KSL in Salt Lake City, or WFAA- WBAP in Dallas—would be looked upon favorably in that respect. In such cities as New York and Chicago, and even in Los Angeles or Ban Francisco, the outlook is not s0 favorable at this time because of complicating competitive factors. In the former cities there are four clear channel stations, each now using 50,- 000 watts. If one goes up to 500,000 ‘watts, then the others will look for similar treatment. There are dangers both technical and economic in such situations, it is felt, and the F. C. C. will deliberate long and hard before it decides the issue. In any event, it looks as though at least a year will elapse before anything happens. HARDLY had the “March of Time” broadcasts resumed Bill Adams’ remarkable simulations of President Roosevelt's voice in its weekly Thurs- day night news dramatization broad- casts, than the political pot began to stew last week over “the affair ‘Vandenberg.” Explanations and counter-explanations are still being voiced and printed as this is written, with Columbia Broadcasting System adament in its decision not to permit any phonographic recordings of Presi: dent Roosevelt’s “‘or voice to be heard on its network. 'rhx 1s how it all happended: any other man’s” | Senator Vandenberg was scheduled for a political address the night of | October 24. Since the Republican radio division, which arranged his speech, uses its own radio engineers, the Columbia network claims it had no inkling that Senator Vandenberg's | speech was to be in the nature of a | dialogue—with excerpted recordings | of the President’s speeches first played and then answered by the Senator in person. The hetworks N. B. C. and C. B. 8. have from the inception of network broadcasting 10 years ago barred the use of recordings except for inci- dental sound effects, such as crowd noises, train whistles, etc. The C.B.S. Chicago vice president, just a few minutes before the Vandenburg talk was to go on the air, ordered it can- celed because of this rule. Then he changed his mind and let it go on, but not until some 20 of the 60-odd stations on the network had cut it off due to the initial order. The broadcast was heard over 40 or more stations—but the Republican radio di- rector, Hill Blackett, head of a big advertising agency in Chicago, de- manded it be repeated over the full network. This demand Columbia’s New York officials declined to accede to, al- though they agreed to cancel the time charges for the curtailed network that heard Vandenberg. There the matter stands, with everybody left to the network policy is a desirable one maintaining its policy against the use of recorded talks. THE political implications are mani- fest when it is pointed out that Senator Vandenburg was answering the air, words which the Senator pur- ported to show were promises that have been broken by the Democratic administration. On the other hand, the network policy against recordings is well known to every one in radio. The policy, of course, applies to the networks as such only, and not to in- dividual stations, carried records and so-called electri- cal transcription programs. ‘The episode is particularly interest- ing in view of the return of the Roosevelt voice on the “March of Time" program. This being the po- litical campaigning season, the White House lifted its ban against the simu- lation of Roosevelt's voice in this pro- gram while he is a candidate. Early in the Roosevelt administration this program frequently carried imitation of Roosevelt's voice, but stopped doing s0o when the White House secretariat asked that it cease. Neither the “March of Time” program nor any other network program carries re- cordings except, as has already been indicated, for incidental sound effects. Cities Aid Radio. MUNXCIPALITX“ throughout the country one by one are adopt- ing local ordinances designed to thwart interference to radio reception caused by electrical devices, including street car trolleys, elevators, X-ray machines and the like. In fact, to encourage the adoption of such ordi- nances, which would require owners of these devices to shield them at the source of the interfering radiations, an organization has been formed in New York under the name of the Na- tional Committee for the Control of Radio Interference, headed by Frank L. Carter. This organization is urging every- where the adoption of the model ordi- nance drawn up by attorneys for the old Federal Radio Commission when it was faced with the problem and found that its interstate commerce powers did not cover local conditions. That proposed ordinance makes it un- lawful for “any person, firm, associa~ tion or corporation to knowingly or wantonly operate or cause to be operated any mechanical device, ap- paratus or instrument of any kind within the corporate limits between the hours of ._ and 12 midnight, the operation of which shall cause reas- nably preventable electrical interfer- ence with radio reception within said corporate limits.” Radio Plans Cut. PLANS for a superpower 100,000~ watt brosdcasting and short wave station in Athens have been dropped by the government of Greece in favor of & more modest layout, which prob- ably will include a 10,000-watt sta- tion in Athens and a smaller one in Salonika. These will be supported by radio set taxes and the sale of program time. Greece at present has no broad- casting station. SHORT-WAVE FEATURES TODAY. BUDAPEST—10 a.m.— Gypsy Band, message to Hungarians abroad, musical program. HAS-3, 195 m,, 15.37 meg. PARIS — 1 p.m. — Concert. TPA-3, 252 m., 11.88 meg. HALIFAX—§:30 pm.—Dr. H. L. Stewart, commentary on world affairs. CRCX, 49.2 m., 6.09 meg.; CJRO, 48.7 m., 6.15 meg.; CJRX, 25.6 m., 11.72 meg. LONDON—6:45 p.m.—The band of His Majesty’s Coldstream Guards. GSP, 19.6 m., 15.31 meg.; GSD, 25.5 m., 11.75 meg.; GSC, 313 m,, 9.58 meg. MOSCOW — 7 p.m.— Monthly scientific review, Institute of the Brain- RAN, 312 m,, 9.6 meg. EINDHOVEN, Netherlands—T7 p.m.—Special transmission for Central and South America. PCJ, 812 m, 9.59 meg. BERLIN—9:15 p.m.—Orches- tral concert. DJD, 254 m, 11.77 meg. LONDON—10:40 p.m.—Weekly and 1175 meg.; GSC, 313 m, 9.50 meg. BERLIN — 11:10 p.m. — Sym- concert. DJD, 354 m, phonic 11.77 meg. form his own opinion as to whether | and with the network insistent upon | Roosevelt’s own words as recorded off | which long have | Sund: AM.| on Columbia Tuesday. Stage and Movie Stars Given Radio Spotlight D s S ——— Joan Winters (left), brown-haired, blue-eyed N. B. C. actress, who is now playing leading roles in “Lights Out,” “Girl Alone,” “Nickelodeon” and other dramatic programs. ay, October 25. | WRC—950k (Copyrigh | WMAL—630k t, 1936) WOL—1310k Eastern Standard Time. WJISV—1,460k |AM. 8:00 8:15 8:30 8:45 T9:00 9:15 9:30 ‘William | - | Children’s concert “ . Meeder, organist - Melody Hour Tone Pictures Salutations Jungle Jim News—Music 'Harold Nagel's Orch. This 'n’ That Concert Ensemble | Sabbath Reveries PR American Homes Rosario Bourdon's Orch.. Coast to Coast on a Bus Organ Recital Musical Potpourri Dixie Harmonies Elder Michaux P “ . At Aunt Susan’s Songs of the Church Southernaires Brown String Quartet Watch Tower—Music John Ford, Lecturer At the Keyboard New Poetry |Church of the Air i Beethoven Sonatas 12:00 12:15 12:30 12:45 Vogues and Vagaries Peerless Trio Neighbor Nell ‘The World Is Yours AFTERNOON | Alice Remsen, Contraito |String Quartet Musical Moments Church Services PROGRAMS |Salute to N. B. C. Chicago Round Table TPageant of Youth Radio City Music Hall WOL Forum Police Flashes—News Cantor Shapiro Day Dreams Last of the Mohicans Maj. Bowes Family Maj. Bowes' Family Kiddies’ Review 1:00 1:15 1:30 1:45 T2:00 2:15 Lucille Manners Myriad Voices W . Moods and Modes “« - Thatcher Colt Mysteries Radio City Music Hall High Lights of the Bible | | Watch Tower—Music Art Brown, Organist Ballad Time |Church of the Air Afternoon Music Theater of Romance The Magic Key ) | Gpera Auditions Grand Hotel Your English Christine Republican Program Church of the Air Joe Brown's Kiddies Pittsburgh Symphony Prederic William Wile 115 :30 45 Joe Brown's Kiddies Music of the Ages Bulletin Board Bud Barry, Sports Musical Camera [National Vespers Tea Time Pishface and Figsbottle News—Music Bill McCune’s Orch. 'Twilight Reveries Columbia Symphony Ma and Pa Sunday Serenade 9:45 10:00 10:15 ) |Marion Talley Home Harmonies “« e I National Catholic Hour A Tale of Today S Jack Benny Fireside Recitals Sunset Dreams Good Will Court 00" (Gfgan Reveries Henry Busse’s Orchestra Xavier Cugat’s Orch. R i RO T Fletcher Henderson’s Or. |Sign Off 30 [Gordon Hittenmark AN B L Gordon Hittenmark Morniog Glories Mrs. Wiggs John’s Other Wife Mary Marlin Eddie Pitzpatrick’s onh.l We the People Stoopnagle and Budd EVENING Prom the Orchestra Pit Cloister Bells Armchair Quartet Church Service Kay Kyser's Orch. PROGRAMS Tony Wakeman Keyboard Classics Senator Vandenburg Melodies Sun Flame Singer Guy Lombardo’s Orch. . w El Chico “ . Bob Ripley Jack Little’s Orch. Watch Tower—Music Beautiful Music Arch McDonald Grace Vitality Phil Baker Tribute to N. B. C, Cole Porter Walter Winchell Whiteman's Varieties Edwin C. Hill Moments of Melody [News Bulletins Slumber Hour “w . Al Sakol’s Sky Ride Sign Off - “ EARLY PROGRAMS TOMORROW 'The Wake-up Club Cheerio Music for Dancing | Jewels of Madonna Five Star Final News—Music Moral, Religious Training Let's Visit Kay Kyser’s Orch. Art Brown “ u | Jack Little’s Orch. “ P “ Nelson Eddy [Eddie Cantor (Community Sing [H. V. Kaltenborn Phil Lampkin News Bulletins [Roger Pryor's Orch. Nat Brandywine's Orch. Louis Prima's Orch. “ “ Sign_Off Art Brown News Bulletins Breakfast Club AFTERNOON PROGRAMS Vincent Lopez's Orch. Frank Dailey’s Orch. |Sign_oOff Honeyboy and Sassafras Curbstone Queries In Old Vienna News—Music mmmmmm annfl"l"hen Rosa Lee, soprano Red River valley Days Farm and Home Hour Vaughn de Leath Dot and Will u.l.-lhv!!‘nl - - Sunday Evening Hour | ¢ mewnomwito MW 863 HSn3 & | anon PRTEy 5858 8535858 58536858 © - & | first movement of Saint-Saens’ Hollywood’s glamorous pair, Joan Crawford and her husband, Franchot Tone (right), who will star in a radio version of Mazwell Anderson’s famous play, “ElizaYeth the Queen,” during the Caravan program They will play the same roles created on Broadway by Lynn Fontanne and Alfred Lunt. Major Features and Notes UTH SLENCZYNSKI, 11-year-old pianist, will be the guest soloist with Erno Rapee’s Symphony Orches- tra on WRC at 10. She will play the “G Minor Concerto” and a group of Cho- pin solos. The orchestras will feature the Mozart “Don Giovanni” overture and Goldmark’s “Queen of Sheba.” The soloist on the Sunday Evening Hour on WJSV at 9 will be Richard " | Bonelli, Metropolitan Opera baritone. 0 | The program will be made up of fa- | Josef Stopak’s Orchestra, with Mario :15 | miliar classical music. It includes the | Cozzi doing the vocals after a Sum- | :30 | overture from Weber's “Euryanthe,” | mer of sustainers at N. B. C. Frank 5 | the prologue from “Pagliacci” and | Parker is due to step back into the 0 | “Brown October Ale” from “Robin |network picture November 8 via the | Hood.” Nelson Eddy will present a group of traditional American “home” songs during his recital on WJSV at 8. His program includes “Hills of Home,” “Little Gray Home in the West” “Stout-Hearted Men,” from Romberg’s “New Moon.” Billy Gaxton, Kitty Carlisle and | 0 | Carol Stone, stars of “White Horse Inn,” new Broadway musical show, will contribute to the “Magic Key” on WMAL at 2. The international portion of the broadcast will present | Herbert Ernst Groh, European tenor, singing from Berlin. A galaxy of radio stars will partici- pate in the Radio Mirror's salute to | the tenth anniversary of N. B. C. on ‘WMAL at 8. The cast includes Ethel" Barrymore, Fred and Tom Waring, Kenny Baker, Johnny Green, Phillips Lord, Rosemary Lane, Don Wilson and Kelvin Keech. Carol Dels, Mario Cozzi and Lillian Knowles will be heard during the Met- ropolitan Opera auditions program on ‘WRC at 3. Miss Deis will sing “Jewel Song,” from “Faust”; Miss Cozzi an aria from “Othello” and Miss Knowles an aria from “Samson and Delilah.” Reed Kennedy, baritone, will be the soloist with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra during its concert on WISV at 2. He will sing an aria from “Othello” and Schubert’s “Serenade.” The orchestra will feature the inter- mezzo from “Cavalleria Rusticana.” A recorded version of the speech of Senator Vandenberg of Michigan, which some Columbia stations recent- ly cut off the air, will be broadcast by | W. O. L. at 6:30. This broadcast has been arranged by the Republican Na- tional Committee. - Solomon for Radio. JUDGE SOLOMON they are calling a Budapest jurist who had to rule in a recent divorce action partly growing out of complaints by hus- band that he preferred light music on 1-00 | the radio and by wife that she pre- ferred Wagner. The husband threw the set out the window, smashing it. ‘The judge suggested they buy two radio sets, each equipped with ear- phones, so both might listen without annoyance to one another. This seemed to satisfy the litigants, and presumably they are now living hap- pily together. Monkeys Hear Radio. A NEW form of “monkey chatter” is reported from India by the In- dian Listener, radio magazine, which observed the installation recently of a radio “listening post” in a Punjab village. As soon as the radio was turned on, all the nearby trees swarmed with curious monkeys, who seemed to take a keen interest in the programs. A few weeks later a service call came to the radio authorities from the village. It seems that the mon- keys had found the aerial a nice place for trapeze practice and broke it down. DON'T ruin your radio. Insists on service' by a radiotrician. D. A. R. Messenger “Radiotrician” Drive-in AUTO RADIO Service HARRIS ARMATURE CO. 9th and O N. Let amateurs and students Year Ahead DEPENDABLE AUTO AND HOME LEETH BROS. 8 AM. TO 8 PM. 1220 13th St. N.W. ME. 0764 |[Few Radio Shows Remain For Debuts on Air-Waves Nine Shows Billed for Future Opening, But Personalities Are Already Well Known to Public. By Dorothy Mattison. week of the current month W ITH only a few air shows still due for premieres in the remaining and early next month, the dialers by now pretty much know what to expect of their loudspeaker for the Fall and Winter season. It's true that nine shows are billed for opening dates on the kilocycles, but those are, for the most part, built about personalities who are well-established institutions on the air. In the group to be heard from incoming premieres are Ed Wynn, due —-— at the microphone for a new series on: November 14; Jack Pearl, who resumes his old Baron Munchausen role on N. B. C’s blue network November 9 for a Monday 9:30 p.m. series for a cigarette manufacturer; Morton Bowe, as the stellar vocalist when Tim and Irene Noblette take to the daytime schedule four times a week at Co- lumbia, beginning November 16, in | addition to this comedy team’s new Sunday morning show for a toothpasve outfit via the N. B. C. red network. OWE also is booked on that new cough drop show on N. B. C.-WEAF and the network Sundays at 1:30 p.m. | along with Muriel Dickson, Victor Arden's Orchestra and the Cavaliers quartet. All of the principals in the coming shows—in which must be in- cluded the November return date of the New York Philharmonic Symphony Orchestra since it has become one of the most popular of the Sunday C. B. 8. airings—are now well enough known on the air that dialers may take them or let them alone as personal tastes dictate without a lot of experimental dialing. That's also true of Johnny Johnson's Orchestra which returns to- day to the “Music and American Youth” series which switches from the | the blue to the red network of N. B. C. | this series for airing at 10:30 a.m. Neither will there be anything in the least experimental about that “Cape Diamond Light” series which bobs up on the N. B. C. blue network November 15 for regular hearings Sunday, 3:15 pm. In these sea stories, of which noth- ing has been heard for almost two | years, Alfred Swenson will again have | the leading role, and traditions of the show are further preserved by the | fact that Burr Cook is penning the | | new series after the fashion he did | the scripts in other seasons. Author | Cook is, by the way, a brother of | Comedian Phil Cook. 'HE new shows are further due to | include a commercial series for | Paul Whiteman show. And so it goes. If you want to know how the network | | audiences are faring this season— | ‘lbout all you have to do is take a | | look at the record as written by old- | d | time favorites. And taking a look at | that record, the dialer may well give | thanks for several things which ap-| pear there—including the departure | of the Saturday “Chauteau” show | | from the well-worn movie star guest‘l | formula, if only because it may be a | step in the right direction, for the‘ | reason that it may lend other shows the courage to go and do likewise. Among the comedy shows the new- est addition is a speedy bill revolving about Walter O‘'Keefe and pretty well | calculated to please all the customers | simply because it manages to include | a little bit of everything—including | a dash of that newest radio craze, | the community sing formula. Another microphone formula, which seems to | be enjoying almost universal adop- tion, is being tried out on Irvin 8. Cobb's new show, which, along with | the O'Keefe bill, is heard on the | N. B. C. red network these Saturday | nights. The sponsors of Humorist Cobb evidently believe in calling in not only the best, but the largest possible cast—even if that does mean cutting down the time of each per- | former until the dialer hears very | little from any of the talented aggre- gation assembled for the occasion. This dialer’s vote would go for more wordage from Mr. Coob and more music from that Hall Johnson Choir for a while—saving some dates later in the season to bear down on the talents of the rest of the cast. THE radio record of the season thus | far shows Phil Baker and Eddie | Cantor in better stride than ever be- fore; Jack Benny, Fred Allen, Bob | Ripley and Stoopnagle and Budd | stepping out as capably as ever, which | is just about good enough for any- body—or was, nyway, until Mr “"NOTHING CAN MAKE ME MISS Benny dug up that “Anthony Ad- verse” script which is already due to wind up. Joe Penner is apparently satisfying the ardent Penner fans and would very likely manage to do even more than that if he had a bigger share of the laugh lines in his new series which has—whatever else may be said about it—the virtue of being different. This last virtue is shared by that “Cwed Will Court” stanza, too, for that show w proving to be an attention-getter even in dialing qua.= ters which accord it nothing but dis approval. But, going back to the comics for a moment, Milton Berle is gathering some new converts for his Sunday night chatter, so expertly is he demonstrating quick-thinking showmanship this season. Burns and Allen go right on doing what's ex- pected of them—about the worst that could be said being a reminder that Announcer Niles twitters so ecstatice ally over the tomato juice that he’s about due for a comedy role himself, Meanwhile, Don Wilson does a little too much laughing at himself and the rest of his company—it would be a rélief to hear him tone down the laughter over gags he's bound to have heard over and over again at the Benny rehearsals. They just can't provoke that much legitimate merri- ment by the time air time zolls around. Auto RADIO L.S.JULLIE "~!{,’,§ 1443 P St.N.W. NO. |RENOVIZE ... your home DEPENDABLE Years EFFICIENT 7 Years [INEXPENSIVE 87 Years EBERLY’S 1108 K N.W. UNITED MOTORS SERVICE OTOR ANALYSIS CUTS OPERATING COSTS NATIONAL SERVICE ESTABLISHED (819 1630 14T ST.NW. CaD (@) No.0050 Body Dent! Your cor deserves out “Special Tune-up.” Ex- pert ignition, body, fen- der and motor repairing; painting. Modern equip- ment; friendly prices. AUTO CENTRAL vowe OFFICIAL KEYSTONE STATION 443 EYE ST. N.W. DI 6161 TONIGHT RICHARD BONELLI SOLOIST ON THE FORD SUNDAY EVENING HOUR SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA OF 70 Conducted by ALEXANDER SMALLENS 9 to 10 O'Clock, E. S. T. ‘WJSV Coust to Coast Columbia Network